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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29313960">All the mischief we'd get up to</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgapantoBlu/pseuds/AgapantoBlu'>AgapantoBlu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>For Everyone Because This Is A Democratic Household, Gen, Kid Games Can Be Very Violent And The Batkids Are Living For It, Minor Injuries, The batkids playing kid games</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:07:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,070</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29313960</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgapantoBlu/pseuds/AgapantoBlu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>She had looked at him, blinking lazily, from above her plate of waffles and her cappuccino. He’d invited her out for breakfast, just the two of them, and she’d smelled the hidden purpose immediately, which meant she didn’t look too surprised. Calculating, rather.</i>
</p>
<p><i>“Let me get this straight,” she had enunciated, slowly, as she picked her mug up. “You think the best way to get Damian to loosen up and bond with the others is to…treat him like a </i>child<i>.”</i><br/> </p>
<p>Dick thinks Damian deserves a "normal" childhood and that kid games are the way to achieve it. Steph can smell the potential from mayhem from a five miles radius.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Stephanie Brown &amp; Cassandra Cain &amp; Tim Drake &amp; Dick Grayson &amp; Jason Todd &amp; Damian Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>114</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>All the mischief we'd get up to</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>All kids games involve a degree of physical damage, for some reason, and the batkids always have to take it one step further.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="post-content">
  <p></p>
  <div class="body-text">
    <p> </p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>Dick would swear on anything he’d be asked to, it all started with <em>good</em> and <em>peaceful</em> intentions. That it was meant to be a bonding occasion, a moment of normalcy, for Damian, yes, because he was still a kid, but also for all of them because none of them truly got to experience an average childhood.</p>
    <p>Except Steph, maybe, which was why Dick had gone to her. In retrospective, an horrible idea.</p>
    <p>She’d looked at him, blinking lazily, from above her plate of waffles and her cappuccino. He’d invited her out for breakfast, just the two of them, and she’d smelled the hidden purpose immediately, which meant she didn’t look too surprised. Calculating, rather.</p>
    <p>“Let me get this straight,” she had enunciated, slowly, as she picked her mug up. “You think the best way to get Damian to loosen up and bond with the others is to…treat him like a <em>child</em>.”</p>
    <p>Well, put it like that, his plan seemed dumb. He had caught himself grimacing at the mere hypothetical fit, but held his ground. “I just think it’d be much easier to get all along with each others if we sometimes did something that didn’t involve criminals and deadly situations.”</p>
    <p>Steph had taken a sip, which somehow felt like a statement in itself. “And you immediately thought, kid games?”</p>
    <p>“What’s wrong with kid games? Our entire careers are an elaborated <em>hide and seek</em> mixed with <em>tag you’re it</em>. It’d be a bit like…catching up. Tasting the experience.”</p>
    <p>And Steph had seemed ready to object, her lips parting slightly, stained with little traces of milk foam, but she hadn’t. She’d remained quiet for a moment, blinked once again, then said, “Uh.”</p>
    <p>“Alright,” she’d said.</p>
    <p>“You rope the others in and I’ll make a list of games,” she’d said.</p>
    <p>“You’re right, it might even be fun,” she’d said.</p>
    <p>Dick was never, ever, trusting Stephanie again.</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>It was easy to rope Damian in. Dick only had to promise they’d spend some time together, an entire afternoon, and the kid was sold. Cass had just smiled and nodded when he’d asked if she wanted to play some games with them, and Jason, who had originally threatened to shoot him over the mere suggestion, for some reason showed up on the day of.</p>
    <p>Dick had made sure to pick one of the afternoons off when Bruce was at WE and had forced Tim to take a break, then he’d sweet-talked Alfred in taking a few hours off to go that tearoom in Gotham he loved, to take a rest and read a book in peace.</p>
    <p>Stephanie arrived at two on the dot with a two pages list. “Alright,“ she announced once they were all out in the gardens, some less reluctantly than others. Tim glared at her the very moment she began speaking. “Some of these are classics, some I found online. We’re going to work our way down the list depending on how much we like each, but we’re trying everything at least once, alright?”</p>
    <p>Jason groaned. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”</p>
    <p>That, was a first to Dick’s ears. “Steph convinced you to come?” he asked, frowning, but it was her who waved him off.</p>
    <p>“I just promised him chaos and mild physical damage, don’t worry about.”</p>
    <p>“<em>Don’t worry about</em>—”</p>
    <p>“First off!” she cheered. “Thought we’d started with something more common, like <em>hide and seek</em>—”</p>
    <p>“The Manor’s grounds are eight acres wide,” Tim interrupted her. “The game could last days.”</p>
    <p>“Then maybe not. <em>Tag</em>?”</p>
    <p>“We play that every night with thugs,“ Jason countered. “Next.”</p>
    <p>“Alright, peanut gallery,” she huffed. “<em>Red Rover</em> it is.“</p>
    <p>Dick tilted his head to the side. “Don’t know that one.”</p>
    <p>“It’s going to be real fun!” Stephanie said, with a smile that promised the very opposite.</p>
    <p>Red Rover turned out to consist of two teams standing in as many lines facing each others. Dick and Jason had pulled age over the others to decide the teams, so Damian and Cass had joined team Blue and Stephanie and Tim team Red.</p>
    <p>Red Hood holding Spoiler’s hand on a side and Red Robin’s on the other made for a comic picture, but Dick bit his lips not to laugh, holding tight on Damian on his left and Cass on his right. “Now?” she asked.</p>
    <p>“Now, our team calls someone from yours with the rhyme I told before, and whoever we call has to run against our clasped hands to try and break them apart. If they manage, the cut off person joins you, if they fail they join us.”</p>
    <p>“Alright,” Dick called. “Your move guys.”</p>
    <p>Jason shared a look with Tim and Stephanie, and received identical small nods from each. Well then. “Let’s get this started on a bang. <em>Red rover, red rover, send Cass right over!</em>”</p>
    <p>Tim groaned, but to his credit, he did square up.</p>
    <p>Cass didn’t even hesitate. She shot off like a bullet, and Jason barely had time to cuss as she aimed straight at where his hand clasped Steph’s.</p>
    <p>They pulled their arms taut, stretching apart just so, but the move that should have slingshotted Cass straight in the throat just caught her chest as she threw herself at them, jumping slightly.</p>
    <p>She crashed through as if they were nothing but paper-cut figures.</p>
    <p>Steph went flying off the side and landed hard on her ass. Jason cussed and shook his arm wildly, but Cass stood up and dusted herself off with bare care before marching to Stephanie and pulling her up in a hug.</p>
    <p>Her smile was blinding. “Friend over!” she declared, and dragged her laughing to their line.</p>
    <p>Tim stared at the four people in front of them with dispassionate eyes. “So, we already lost, uh.“</p>
    <p>Jason shook him hard by the hand. “Ye of little faith!”</p>
    <p>Dick giggled. “<em>Red rover, red rover, send Tim right over.</em>”</p>
    <p>“Well, great, now we <em>are</em> fucked.” Tim attempted to run, at first seemingly aiming at the joint between Dick and Damian, but then he must have seen something on the kid’s face because Jason watched him pitifully swerve and land instead between Cass and Stephanie, who all but caught him in a hug. “Traitor!”</p>
    <p>“What,” Stephanie dared. “You think you could have done better?”</p>
    <p>Jason grinned back at her. “<em>Red rover, red rover, send the mighty Jason right over.</em>”</p>
    <p>“Wait,” Tim squeaked, the moment he realised Jason’s aim, “That’s not how—“</p>
    <p>Jason crashed straight into him, and they both were sent falling a few feet aback. Tim’s breath was squeezed out of his chest as he was clamped between the hard ground and his just as hard brother. He wheezed, even after the other had gotten up and Dick and Cass had helped him up in a sitting position.</p>
    <p>“Would you look at that,” Jason commented, off-handedly. “That <em>was</em> fun.”</p>
    <p>“Okay!” Dick cut in before Tim could do anything more than flipping his brother off. “New game!”</p>
    <p>“But, Richard, I wouldn’t mind another round.”</p>
    <p>“I said. <em>New. Game.</em>”</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>“But that’s basically<em> tag</em>,” Jason huffed. “With a stupid twist, at that.“</p>
    <p>“Well, you should have thought about it before you almost killed Tim,“ Dick replied icily. “So, <em>The Witch Touches Color</em>. A witch calls a color and everyone must find something of that color. If they touch it, they’re safe; if the witch catches them first, it’s their turn to be the witch. Easy.”</p>
    <p>“I agree with Todd,” Damian huffed. “The game is boring.”</p>
    <p>“You haven’t even played it yet.”</p>
    <p>“I don’t need to.”</p>
    <p>“I think—”</p>
    <p>“Why can’t we play <em>Red Rover</em> again?“ Damian tried again. Steph smacked him upside the head. “Whatever.”</p>
    <p>“Alright, you know what,“ Dick smiled, sweet and kind, as he took three steps away from the group standing at the edge of the Manor’s forest. “I’ll be the witch first round. How does that sound?”</p>
    <p>Cass jumped up from her position sitting on the ground with a bright a smile, and that was enough answer. “Color?” she asked, already jogging on the spot.</p>
    <p>Dick smiled at her. “The Witch touches color Fuchsia.”</p>
    <p>Jason frowned. “Fuchsia? How the hell are we supposed to—<em>oh shit</em>.”</p>
    <p>Dick kept smiling. “Get running.”</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>Several rounds and more convoluted shades of cerulean and crimson and aqua later, Damian called <em>purple</em>. Less than a minute later, Dick stumbled into a clearing to find Stephanie holding both Cass and Tim up, one per arm, their legs crossed at her waist and arms around her neck. They were both also firmly anchored to her purple sweatshirt.</p>
    <p>“I can do it!” she hurriedly hissed, taking big mouthfuls of air. “I’m strong!”</p>
    <p>“How long have you been carrying them for?!”</p>
    <p>“Purple is life!” she hissed. “Purple is salvation, and I am its emissary!” Somewhere east, Jason roared. “Oh, fuck.”</p>
    <p>Tim and Cass jumped off, eyes wild. “What’s the new color?!”</p>
    <p>“I don’t know! I was here with you!”</p>
    <p>“You mean only Damian knows the color to save us?! He’s gonna let Jason maul us!”</p>
    <p>Dick frowned. “There’s no mauling involved in the game.”</p>
    <p>Steph gestured wildly in the direction the yell had come from. “It’s <em>Jason</em>.”</p>
    <p>Fast feet forewarned the incoming person, and they all turned to see Damian’s sillhouette cutting in the clearing they were all in. He didn’t stop, passed them and kept running, but at least he dared to yell the salvation color to them.</p>
    <p>“Perwinkle?!” Dick cried. They could hear another, heavier, body hurling fast in their direction and they took off running after Damian. “I don’t even know what shade periwinkle is!”</p>
    <p>Cass clicked her teeth at him. “Then be faster.”</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>Steph checking behind herself when she heard Jason descend on Dick like an eagle put an end to the game, mostly because she crashed face first in one of the centenary oaks in her distraction.</p>
    <p>Her nose wasn’t broken, much to everyone’s relief, but it bleed for a short bit and they walked back to the Manor to get a handkerchief to dab it with. As soon as it seemed to have stopped, Jason raised his hand. “I have an idea.”</p>
    <p>Dick didn’t hesitate. “Vetoed.”</p>
    <p>“You don’t even know what I want to say!”</p>
    <p>“I know we had two injuries already,” he retorted. “We’re finding something more relaxed for our next game, and that’s it.”</p>
    <p>“Cool,” Jason replied, just as cold. “Because I meant to say, Bruce installed a playground behind the greenhouse.”</p>
    <p>Steph blinked at him, lowering her towel in surprise. “What.”</p>
    <p>Jason shrugged at her. “Bruce had zero idea of what was age appropriate entertainment for a twelve year old. His only other reference was Dick and Dick climbed chandeliers for fun at nine, he didn’t count.”</p>
    <p>“And so he bought you a personal playground,” Steph repeated. “Like any normal person would do, no?” Jason made finger guns at her. “Wow.”</p>
    <p>“Playground sounds calm enough,” Tim dared to hope. “Swing set, slider. I mean, what can happen?”</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>What could happen was, Jason’s Personal Playground included a seesaw, and from the smirk on his face that had been his aim all along.</p>
    <p>“That’s a simple lever system,” Damian pointed out, arms crossed before his chest. “What would the point be?”</p>
    <p>“Nothing.” Jason raised his hands innocently to his sides. “You just go up and down. Very relaxing.”</p>
    <p>Jason was a rotten liar. Which was why Dick took the seat opposite to Damian before he could. There was a rapid exchange of looks, where one side said <em>you’re no fun</em> and the other conveyed <em>your concept of fun is murder</em>.</p>
    <p>Damian glowered the entire time Dick made them swing gently up and down. “This is pointless.“</p>
    <p>“That’s because Dick’s not doing it right,” Steph whined. She turned to take a look at Jason head to toe. “How much do you weight?”</p>
    <p>“Enough, if you’re ready for it.”</p>
    <p>“She just <em>face-planted</em> on a<em> plant</em>,” Dick cut in, stopping the seesaw in perfect balance. “You’re not doing that.”</p>
    <p>“Me then,” Cass declared.</p>
    <p>She’d climbed on the roof of the slider and jumped off with a twirl in air, landing elegantly on her feet. Dick had a feeling the display was mostly to remind him there was absolutely nothing to fear for them. With a sigh, he got off the seat.</p>
    <p>Damian followed his example, but his eyes remained hawk-like on his siblings as they took their places.</p>
    <p>Cass hedged lower and Jason raised. Once he was at maximum height, he grinned down at her, then shifted. He moved his whole body off the seat, with his stomach laid on the handles and his ass slightly raised. With a bit of effort, Cass kept them still despite the weight, her thighs straining in squatting position.</p>
    <p>“You ready?” Jason asked her, with unbridled excitement in his voice. Dick’s heart ached to think that one of Gotham’s most horrific crime lords was actually bursting with joy playing on a children’ toy.</p>
    <p>Cass’ smile was cutting like a shark’s row of teeth. “Go!”</p>
    <p>Damian watched as she pushed herself off the ground at the same time as Jason slammed his weight back on his seat. The seesaw changed its inclination fast and the recoil made Jason yell something about his ass.</p>
    <p>It seemed irrelevant compared to Cass’ delighted squeal as she was sent flying off the metal bar. She fell backward, but shifted her balance so she ended in a handspring and made a couple cartwheels until enough energy had been exhausted that she could safely stop.</p>
    <p>Tim and Stephanie clapped, and she made a formal bow in their directions.</p>
    <p>Dick got closer to lean his forearms on Jason’s shoulders. “Think you can still give Bruce grand-babies after this?”</p>
    <p>Jason huffed what could have been a laughter, still slumped over the handle in front of him. “Never had any intention to,” he groaned. “But let me tell you, anal’s out of the question for a while.”</p>
    <p>“<em>Jason</em>!” Dick hissed, but it seemed his brother had enough good sense to keep his voice low enough that their younger siblings wouldn’t hear. “You’re absolutely awful.”</p>
    <p>“Thanks, it’s what I wanna be when I grow up.”</p>
    <p>“Todd.” Dick turned, surprised, and was dislodged when Jason pulled up to look as well. Damian stood straight and firmly planted, regal stance and chin raised, as he stared at his brother. “I demand a turn.”</p>
    <p>He <em>knew</em> it. For a moment, a vision of one of Alfred’s innumerable tirades about their lack of common sense flashed in front of his eyes. Oh well.</p>
    <p>Jason, the enabler, just smirked. “Aren’t you eager to be slingshotted in the sky. And what’s the magic word, brat?“</p>
    <p>Damian stared him down for endless seconds, either trying to wear him down or looking for a way out of the request. Dick looked on in curiosity until the kid settled his shoulders. He expected the prized <em>please</em> to come, but what he heard instead was, “Jason.”</p>
    <p>Jason was just as surprised, for a moment seemingly unable to connect the name to his person. Finally, he scoffed. “I’ll be fucking damned. You’re a manipulative, conniving little shit. Truly B’s son. Get on, brat. We’re sending you so high you’ll run into that little super-friend of yours.”</p>
    <p>God, <em>no</em>.</p>
    <p>Dick watched the entire process — Jason this time squatting and sending himself high enough to fall back on his seat heavily once he reached the top and giving the descent enough speed — with a single word hidden behind his lips.</p>
    <p>
      <em>Superman.</em>
    </p>
    <p>Just in case.</p>
    <p>Damian went a full foot higher than Cass and he<em> laughed</em>. His landing was less fluid than their sister, but he had an euphoric grin on his mouth the whole time.</p>
    <p>Tim and Steph <em>oh</em>-ed and cheered and even tag-hugged him once he walked to them, and Dick caught himself giggling too.</p>
    <p>It was worth the ten years shaved off his life-span, he decided.</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>“You won’t get me, Drake. Surrender now and spare yourself the indignity.”</p>
    <p>“Funny you’d say that,“ Tim retorted. His unblinking eyes had long since stopped looking blue to Damian’s unflinching own; they were now endless plains of grey ice, silent and impossible to read. “Why are you sweating then?”</p>
    <p>“I’m not!”</p>
    <p>Three minutes of stare down, lost in a second. Damian’s shoulders itched as he hissed and Drake’s, well. He was so fast Damian couldn’t track his motion. A moment later, the back of his hands smarted like fire.</p>
    <p>Damian’s hiss was more of rage than pain, and it was drowned by Tim’s victorious howling. Steph grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, laughing, while Jason groaned and slipped a blue hairband from his wrist to pass off to Cass, who took it with a smug smile. Their gambling habit was getting out of hand if they were betting on a round of <em>Hot Hands</em>.</p>
    <p>“Tough luck, Dami,” Dick offered gently, patting his head. Damian shook him off. “But hey, now we can try—”</p>
    <p>“No. Again.”</p>
    <p>“Dami.”</p>
    <p>“<em>Again</em>,” he glared in Drake’s direction, sat himself better on his swing, and offered his hands, palm up, in his brother’s direction. “My turn to catch you now.”</p>
    <p>It pleased him to notice, Drake paled a bit.</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>Four hours went by. Four. Dick had never thought he’d be the one to be run into exhaustion by outside playing, but there he was, groaning as Steph yelled, “Alright, the next game is—”</p>
    <p>“No,” Dick snatched the list out of her hand. “No more games. I can’t believe you’d do this to me. Alfred and Bruce will be home in another hour maximum; we need to hide injuries and damages at the best we can.”</p>
    <p>“Jeez, you’re never happy.” Steph raised her nose at him, in challenge. “You said you wanted the true childhood experience. Well, kids love to try and get themselves killed. It’s an evolutionary process!“</p>
    <p>“It’s <em>darwinism</em>, at most, and I’m not going to enable it with the risk of Bruce catching us in the act.”</p>
    <p>Badly hidden from a cough, behind him, Dick heard someone mutter a single word. “<em>Coward</em>.”</p>
    <p>He whipped around, eyes reduced to slits, but Tim, Damian and Cass had not bothered to help the charade. Jason, on his own, still had a fist raised in front of his mouth, and it didn’t even hide the smirk on his lips.</p>
    <p>Dick glared at him. “Can you please try to be mature for once in your life?”</p>
    <p>Of course, the answer would be <em>no way</em>. “What’s the problem, Dickie? They’re just kiddie games. A little fun between brothers, isn’t that what you wanted?”</p>
    <p>Considering he knew that just behind himself, in full sight of Jason, was the toolshed that Cass had splashed with fuchsia paint during their first round at the witch game, Dick didn’t think he’d have to underline how much out of hand the entire afternoon had gone. “Not like this.”</p>
    <p>Jason shrugged, expression shifting back into one of boredom. “Whatever. I think you’re just chickening out.”</p>
    <p>“That’s so not the point and also, what are you, twelve?”</p>
    <p>“Hey!”</p>
    <p>“Sorry, Dami.“</p>
    <p>Jason fished a cigarette pack out of his pocket, and snapped it open. “As I said, chickening out.”</p>
    <p>“I’m not— Can you not smoke directly in your little brother’s face?!”</p>
    <p>A flick of the hand, zippo opened and closed, Jason took a drag making sure to exaggerate every motion, then blew the smoke out, slowly. “Chicken.”</p>
    <p>“Cut it out.“</p>
    <p>“Chick-en.”</p>
    <p>“Stop it, I mean it.”</p>
    <p>“<em>Cooo</em>.”</p>
    <p>“You’re testing me.”</p>
    <p>“<em>Coo-coo</em>.”</p>
    <p>Alright, Dick decided. That was it.</p>
    <p>He crossed the distance between them too fast for Jason to react, and snatched the cigarette out of his lips with a fluid movement. He snapped it in half and dropped it down to stomp on it — he’d pick it up before going in, though, before Alfred could demand his head in retribution —. He stood, barely a inch away from his brother’s face, nose to nose. “Think you’re funny, don’t you?”</p>
    <p>Jason didn’t look mad, though. Jason was grinning, and when he coed again, he puffed smoke in Dick’s eyes, the little shit.</p>
    <p>“Okay, Jay,” he said, coating the name in sugar and poison. “I’ll play you. No, scratch that. I dare <em>you</em> to play <em>me</em>.”</p>
    <p>Of course, the smug asshole didn’t even hesitate. “Just pick the game, Dick.”</p>
    <p>Oh. He had the perfect choice for this.</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>“It’s a speed game,” he explained as he moved one of the kitchen chair to the wall by the door. It was the only wall bare enough of paintings and other rich people knick knacks, and it had the added plus of being real close to the refrigerator.</p>
    <p>“I can’t believe you’ve willingly brought us inside, for once that we were all out in the sun,” Tim snorted. He’d found his perch sitting on the island and Cass and Steph had soon joined him, but Damian was standing firm beside Dick and puffing his chest proudly.</p>
    <p>“Putting Jason back in his place is more important,” Dick quipped back, and ignored the middle finger flipped in his direction by the man in question. “Alright, now you sit here.”</p>
    <p>Loose limbed, absolutely confident, Jason sat on the chair facing the wall. “Alright. Real difficult up to here, I have to say.”</p>
    <p>“Save your braincells, you don’t have any to spare.” Dick fished the wallet from his back pocket, and pulled out a coin. “Alright, we’re set.”</p>
    <p>“Richard, explain,” Damian huffed. “I cannot referee properly if I don’t know all the rules.”</p>
    <p>Dick chuckled and resisted the impulse to ruffle the kid’s hair. Instead, he placed the coin with a face flat against the wall, a good twelve inches above Jason’s head, and held it there with a fingertip.</p>
    <p>“I’m going to let the coin go,” he informed, looking at Jason and savouring the moment. “Your goal is to catch it with your forehead.”</p>
    <p>For a moment, no one said anything. Jason stared at the coin for a brief second, then at the wall in front of him, then at Dick as if he’d lost his mind. “Are you kidding me?“</p>
    <p>“Nope.”</p>
    <p>“Do you think I’m fucking dumb?! I’m not gonna headbutt a wall just because you disguised it as a game, you idiot.“</p>
    <p>“I didn’t disguise anything,” Dick corrected. “That’s the real, whole game.“</p>
    <p>“Well, it’s a stupid game.”</p>
    <p>“After you do it—” not <em>if</em>, <em>after</em>, he was sure of it, “—it will be my turn and you’ll drop the coin. And we will keep going until one of us catches it.”</p>
    <p>“Or gets a <em>concussion</em>,” Tim supplied from the back. “C’mon, guys, you can’t be really thinking about it?”</p>
    <p>Little Timmy, poor thing, the voice of reason, was already too late. Dick could tell by the calculating look on Jason’s face as he estimated the distance from his face and the wall. “And you’ll do it? You’re not going to make me do this shit and then weasel your way out of your turn by yielding or shit like that?”</p>
    <p>Now, that was almost offensive. As if too much pride wasn’t one of the many flaws they shared. “You have my word,” he swore, voice grave. “Until victory or first blood.”</p>
    <p>“<em>First</em>— Dick!” Tim squeaked objection was drowned by Jason’s barked laughter.</p>
    <p>“To Hell, then,” he grinned. “Let’s get this done. You’re proving to be fun, Dickiebird.”</p>
    <p>Adrenaline begun pumping in Dick’s veins as he watched Jason set himself, thighs slightly spread and head titled forward toward the wall. They were doing this.</p>
    <p>The last time he’d played the game, it had been with his dad in their trailer during a stop. They’d done it only once, Dick hadn’t really realised he was going to hit his head, too focused on the promise of an extra sweet, and John Grayson had burst out laughing when it had been over. Mary had come in to see what was going on and she’d tore his dad a new one. Dick had been secretly satisfied as he scrubbed at his reddened forehead.</p>
    <p>He didn’t say any of that, though. Instead, he grinned. “Eyes on the target, Little Wing.”</p>
    <p>His finger lifted, the coin dropped, Jason’s head smashed forward.</p>
    <p>It was downright <em>glorious</em>.</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>They had run out of ice cubes at some point, and begun digging into the frozen vegetables. It had almost stopped them, but Tim had raised his bet on Jason of three packages of fuzzy worms and two twix bars and that was just insulting.</p>
    <p>Tim shrugged at his offended glare. “He’s just that dumb, Dick.”</p>
    <p>“Fuck you, Timbo.”</p>
    <p>“Jay, you’re <em>swaying</em>.”</p>
    <p>Jason, from where he was sitting slumped at the island, flipped him the bird. “Your face’s swaying.”</p>
    <p>“What’s that even supposed to mean?!”</p>
    <p>“Cain,” Damian called, eyes pensively on the wall. His forehead had smarted from the two rounds he’d played against Stephanie while Dick and Jason took a break to try and get their skulls to stop metaphorically rattling. “Would you be able to do it?”</p>
    <p>Cass shrugged from her perch over the fridge, the Rocky Road tub firmly in her lap and a serving spoon in her hand. “Yes.”</p>
    <p>“I dare you.”</p>
    <p>“Hey,” Dick objected, though he had to admit he’d be curious to see her do it. That he could remember, he’d never seen someone actually doing it. Catching the coin, yes, even they had managed a few times, but usually immediately after came the pain and everyone recoiled from the wall, letting it fall and forfeiting the game. “Jay and I aren’t done yet.”</p>
    <p>“I won’t deny that it’s amusing to watch you two grown-ass adults maiming yourselves on your macho pride,” Steph piped. She’d sat beside Tim and he’d slapped a bag of frozen peas to her forehead even though she’d only played a few rounds. “But I’m about to get bored, and Bored Stephanie can make some stupid ass decisions. Let the woman have a go!”</p>
    <p>Tim rolled his eyes at her. “Just because she can, which none of us doubts, why would Cass want to— <em>Cass</em>!”</p>
    <p>Cass just patted his cheek once as she left her ice cream beside him, and took the chair with a placid smile on her face. “First try,” she bet. “Marshmallow.”</p>
    <p>Jason grinned. “How many?”</p>
    <p>“<em>Bag</em>.”</p>
    <p>“You can’t hog the entire bag!” Cass made to stand up. “<em>Alright</em>! Geez, you’re lucky I wanna see it.”</p>
    <p>“Wait, wait.” Steph there the cold bag in the sink unceremoniously and almost slipped on an empty bag of Jolly Ranchers in her hurry to get closer. She pushed Dick aside none too gently and adjusted her phone now higher now to the left to get the best angle on both Cass and the coin, by the side. “I want to post it on Twitter.”</p>
    <p>“You can’t! Bruce’s gonna burst a coronary if you do that!” Tim hissed. Steph turned her head slowly in his direction. He slumped. “I realise now that this does nothing to your motivation.”</p>
    <p>“Smart baby,” she cooed, but she was already turning back to her phone. “Wait, the lighting’s all— Jay, close the window— Not that one, the <em>blind</em>! Yes, the blind, of course I meant the blind, keep up with the program. No, only one blind, why would I mean both! Now it’s too dark! Are you really—”</p>
    <p>Dick began suspecting a scheme behind Stephanie’s sudden delusions of directory as he noticed Tim shifting in his seat and frowning. After the third time she made Jason change something, he finally jumped off the island. “Oh my God, just give it to me! You’re going to get me in trouble anyway, might at least make Cass look cool.”</p>
    <p>Cass laughed. “<em>Am</em> cool.”</p>
    <p>“Yeah, well, cooler.” Tim snatched Steph’s phone, moved to Cass’ other side and bent over slightly to reach the height of her head. “Alright, on my count. When I get to three, you add one second more and then drop, alright?”</p>
    <p>Dick saluted. “Yessir, Tim, sir.”</p>
    <p>“Fuck off. Alright, one, two, <em>three</em>.“</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>She caught it. Her head barely made any sound touching the coin and the wall.</p>
    <p>Jason upturned a tool while yelling a string of profanities.</p>
    <p>Tim replayed the video twice, added some filter and then Stephanie stole her phone back to add the sunglasses and underlined a-hundred emojis, then she raised her bottle of red Gatorade in the air solemnly. “Boys and Goddess, it was an honour to play by your side,” and she posted it.</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>Dick’s phone rang three minutes later. He stared at it, where it rest on the cupboards. “We should answer that,” he said.</p>
    <p>“Or—,” Damian countered, “—I can climb on your shoulders, Timothy can climb Jason’s and try the tandem team version.”</p>
    <p>“I’ll drop,” Cass grinned. “Then Steph on me.“</p>
    <p>“Oh, girl,” Steph grinned right back. “We’re gonne run over these guys. Let’s film this too, Twitter’s loving the <em>WildWaynes</em> tag.“</p>
    <p>Jason stood from his apple-cross seat on the floor, white forelock held back with a pink bobby pin and forehead proudly painted in red rashes and round marks. “I’m down for it.”</p>
    <p>Well now. If Damian asked, Dick couldn’t really say no.</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p>“I don’t even have the words to express how unreasonable and dangerous and idiotic this unmotivated— what even was <em>that</em>? A dare, a challenge, what? Each one of you is injured some way or another for no explainable reason at all!”</p>
    <p>Dick didn’t bother answering. There was no stopping Bruce once he launched on a rant like that, so he’d just let the man yell his lungs off until he got tired of it.</p>
    <p>He couldn’t even say that he cared that much. They all been banned from the kitchen by a distressed Alfred and herded in the den for the group scolding, but now that they were all piled in the huge couch and pressed to each others, the exhaustion from the day was catching and, well. The warmth was nice.</p>
    <p>Jason and Damian would deny it, but it was cuddle pile and Dick’s heart rejoiced at the thought. Who cared about Bruce, on the face of successful sibling bonding?</p>
    <p>Dick met Steph’s eyes from where she was entangled with Cass. A little green at the grills as she was — too much candy, oh my god, so much candy —, she returned the look and grinned.</p>
    <p>“Are you even listening to me?! You even posted it! Do you know how many retweets your videos have? This is unbelievable. The amount of recklessness and for what? Because unless you were looking for a concussion, I can’t fathom what’d make you do something that stupid!”</p>
    <p> </p>
    <p> </p>
  </div>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm @agapantoblu on Tumblr</p></blockquote></div></div>
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